Sohrabuddin’s hitherto missing wife now ‘officially’ dead

Ahmedabad: It was exactly seven years ago that Kausarbi, wife of the slain gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, went missing after she and her husband were picked up by a Gujarat police team from a bus bound for Sangli in Maharashtra. This was the last time she was seen in public.

The state CID as well as the CBI has stated that both she and Sohrabuddin were killed by the Gujarat police but neither agency has been able to find any trace of her. It is for this reason that her being missing for the last seven years is important as she can now be officially presumed to be dead. Under the law, a person is presumed to be dead if he remains missing for seven years. Hence, from Friday, Kausarbi will be officially ‘dead’ as she has been missing for the last seven years.

Kausarbi and Sohrabuddin were abducted by a Gujarat police team on November 23, 2005 from a bus bound for Sangli. Three days later, Sohrabuddin was killed in a fake encounter on the outskirts of Ahmedabad but there was no trace of Kausarbi. It was the habeas corpus petition filed by Sohrabuddin’s brother, Rubabuddin Sheikh, seeking to know the whereabouts of the missing Kauserbi which led to intensified investigation of the case. The case was ultimately handed over to the CBI for investigation by the Supreme Court. Talking to DNA over phone from Madhya Pradesh, Rubabuddin said that so far none of the investigating agencies had been able to find anything about Kausarbi.

“No agency has been able to find any trace her — neither her clothes, chappals or jewellery,” he said. Rubabuddin’s lawyer, Shamshad Pathan, told DNA that the CBI had investigated the Sohrab and Tulsi encounters thoroughly. “They will now have to focus the investigation into the death of Kausarbi. As she has been untraceable from November 23, 2005, the CBI will have to consider this date as the date on which she went missing,” he said. Pathan further said that the CBI can file a fresh FIR to investigate Kausarbi’s murder or it can mention the progress made in the investigation of her death in the additional chargesheet.